Student Question
Why can't Jess tell Leslie about his fear of swimming in Bridge to Terabithia?
Quick answer:
The reason why Jess cannot tell Leslie about his fear of swimming is not so much because he is afraid of telling her but because he is afraid of facing the fact that he is afraid of something. To Jess, being afraid is perceived as a weakness and not as a natural human reaction.
In chapter 9 of Bridge toTerabithia, it is clear that Jess has issues with fear. He feels that being afraid of something does not conform to the way he was raised and that boys and young men are not supposed to be afraid of anything. Rather than seeing fear as a normal, human reaction, he sees it as a weakness.
During this particular scene, the rain has been out of control in Terabithia and the waters in the creek are getting high. This makes Jess terribly scared, as he realizes that he is afraid of swimming. He starts making excuses about not going. This is when the reader finds out what is really going on in Jess's mind.
It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid.
This is a conflicting sentiment, particularly coming from...
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a young man who will naturally have to face fears as he grows up. It is unnatural not to fear something. While his words may sound like a pretentious statement from Jess, we find out that this is actually how he feels and that he feels quite strongly about this. Jess even states that bring afraid makes him feel
as though he had been made with a great piece missing one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye and cheek andjaw should have been.
This shows that Jess feels that he was created "wrong," as if he were some kind of freak that is missing a piece somewhere just because he feels afraid.
Finally, Jess completes his statement with an even more shocking declaration of his disdain for feeling afraid.
Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.
These words go to show that Jess is extremely hard on himself and that his expectations and personal views are both unnatural and unrealistic. These are the key factors why he will not confess to Leslie that he is afraid of swimming.